Speaking at All Things Open 2015

I’m a rogue librarian turned ux/ui developer. I went to grad school at the School of Information and Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill, where I realized that people are more interesting than books.

I’m currently UX team lead at Intel Saffron. I was the UX lead at Saffron Technology when we were acquired by Intel three years ago, and have continued in that role since, implementing and overseeing UX and design processes and standards across Saffron’s portfolio of products. Some of my team’s recent work includes Financial Crimes Risk Advisor, Similarity Advisor, and various engagements with the Navy and other government organizations.

Previously I was the UX team lead at Deutsche Bank’s Cary Technology Center, working on complex financial applications with teams around the world. I’ve done previous work for places like Adzerk, NC LIVE and Lulu.com. I also hack on Fogbeam Labs.

When people ask me what I do, I tell them I’m a spy. I spend time with my users to see how they use a product, and I report back to HQ with the information, and proposed solutions. Sounds like spying to me. As I always tell my students, lurking is an integral part of doing UX.

I’m also into other things, like Krav Maga, weights, and real estate. My side hustle is The Business Business, a real estate collaboration with my cousins.

My Process

Minimum UX process

I’ve been designing and building web application interfaces since 2008. Over the years I’ve gained a variety of experience in interaction design, usability evaluation, qualitative and quantitative research, and assessing web accessibility. More importantly, I’ve become very good at sharing what I know with others. I love including team members from around the organization in weekly Design Jams to get ideas from all different angles. I sit on my hoard of wiki pages like a dragon of words- except I share too. Nothing makes me happier than making someone’s day easier by giving them tools that are simple and intuitive.

If you want to know how I work, you can check out my Intro to UX curriculum, created for Girl Develop It, and now taught in chapters around the country. I’ve also written a bit about my take on integrating Kanban and Lean UX. You can also see some of that in action on my Adzerk page.

Community

My Leadership Raleigh team working on our service project for Read and Feed- read more about the project at kahnlab.com/readandfeed

Community is very important to me. I spend a lot of time teaching and mentoring others and was a co-leader of the Raleigh/Durham chapter of Girl Develop It for over three years. We’re a national non-profit committed to empowering women to pursue careers in software. We offer low-cost, high quality classes, career development, and general networking and support. You can see our upcoming classes and events on our meetup page. Currently I’m involved in the Women in Intel conference organizing committee, which I have served on for the past three years.

I’ve previously been involved with community-based and leadership fostering organizations like Leadership Raleigh (I graduated from the program’s Class 36 last spring), Activate Good, Refresh the Triangle, AIGA, and organized the Teen Tech Camp with Julia Elman.